The recent snow storm that hit the DMV area forced many counties to close on January 3rd and 4th, Anne Arundel County being one of them. Many students were delighted to have those days off, however others feared that using up all of the snow days would eventually result in additional school days being added onto the end of the school year. Three inclement weather days are built into the AACPS schedule, and the additional snow day on 7th, meant that the end of the school year schedule would be altered. 

Kayla Gutierrez, a junior at Crofton highschool, expressed that, “When I first heard about the snow days, I was extremely excited. It gave me time to catch up on my school work while also being able to sleep in.” She shared that it also gives her the opportunity to hangout with friends, which tends to be hard because of busyness.

 Freshman, Sasha Failli shared a similar reaction and shared her initial reaction to the snow days was “excitement”. She said that, “I liked slowly easing back into school and getting a break is always nice.” 

 11th grader, Nate Gayvert, expressed a different opinion to the recent snow days. Gayvert said that, “I was pretty surprised when the snow day was called on Friday because there was barely any snow.” 

 On January 7th, Anne Arundel County’s Instagram (@aacountyschools)  posted an announcement regarding the change in the schedule. The post stated how the last day of school would now be moved to June 23rd for students and June 24th for teachers. 

Gutierrez revealed, “I feel a little frustrated about the last day of school getting pushed back all the way to the 23rd.  It feels like I’m getting a piece of my summer break taken away from me. During the school year, I’m constantly stressing over all of my assignments and getting enough sleep. Summer break is the only time of the year that I don’t have to stress about all those things, so to have the school year get extended is really heartbreaking.” 

Failli felt similarly stating, “I personally didn’t like how the last day of school was moved because we were already ending the year late. I would have rather had it taken out of our longer spring break.”

With all of the outcomes regarding the changes in the AACPS calendars, it is clear that these changes in our calendar left many students with different emotions. Excited for days off, however frustrated with the time taken from their summer.